The joy that came with watching the Mets absolutely tattoo the Braves on Monday night also tugged at the emphatic side of Keith Hernandez, making it almost difficult to watch.
Seeing Connor Thomas have to “wear it” to the tune of 11 runs in 2 ⅔ innings in just his fourth career game didn’t sit right with the MLB legend.
“I’m sorry, I just think that’s criminal what we just witnessed,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez and his SNY partners Gary Cohen and Ron Darling called out the Braves — and indirectly manager Walt Weiss — for allowing Thomas to stay in the game for so long during the Mets’ 14-3 win.
Thomas surrendered 10 hits and three homers while walking five batters before his night mercifully ended in the eighth, with a position player replacing him.
“You just want to give him a hug,” Darling said. “Literally, I’m sick to my stomach. I’m not a happy camper at all. Pretty disgusted with it.”
The concept of “wearing it” in baseball is not new, with an unlucky pitcher sometimes having to take it on the chin to save the rest of the bullpen.
The Braves entered Monday having played in five straight one-run games, and just inserting Thomas into the game alone meant they weren’t putting their best foot forward.
Thomas entered a 3-3 game in the sixth and immediately surrendered a two-run homer to Marcus Semien that gave the Mets the lead for good.
He allowed a three-run bomb to Tyrone Taylor in the seventh inning and four runs overall in the frame to put the game out of reach, and his outing became painful to watch in the ninth.
Thomas walked in one run and later surrendered a three-run homer to Francisco Lindor that mercifully ended his night, with position player Jorge Mateo replacing him.
He faced 23 batters and retired just eight.
“For that he’s going to get a ticket back to the minor leagues tomorrow, and it’s an unfortunate byproduct of the way the game is played these days,” Cohen said while Mateo pitched.
The SNY booth discussed what could be done in such a situations and didn’t have a concrete answers, although Hernandez wondered what more can be done to help pitchers.
It’s one thing that the Braves may want to avoid using their back-end relieves, but there’s an argument they should have a fifth, sixth or seventh man in the bullpen to cover some frames.
“How many pitchers do we need? Do we need 15? We have 13,” Hernandez said.
“Can’t get through a nine-inning game?”
